Little Love Affair
by Fauxhound
Summary: Princess Bubblegum likes Marceline back. Finn and Jake took it upon themselves to get the two together. Everything sounds so nice for Marceline- except for one little problem: Marcy doesn't like PB anymore. Now, she's between trying not to lead her on and avoiding breaking her heart with rejection. The longer this goes, the worse it gets, but Marcy can't seem to pull it together.
1. Photography

**Author's Note: **Thanks to the anon that pointed out that Marcy shouldn't be able to see her reflection! I totally forgot about that. In fact, I don't really know much about vampire lore in the first place, so I don't know if she should show up in pictures, but I won't change that.

* * *

"I don't get why I can't see you like I did.

I'm not sure why I can't see you again,

The way I did before... No, no. That's not right... ugh!"

Marceline huffed a mix of a groan and a growl and set down the ax bass almost too roughly to the floor. Her songs lately have been a little... off. She blamed it on her growing frustration. Usually, that would lead up to something. Her stress would write her songs on their own. Not this time.

The vampire girl floated away into her kitchen, a frown etched into her face. She rolled a sore shoulder, sending strands of black hair flowing to her back as she opened her fridge. Red foods filled the shelves. Her eyes scanned over a bunch of them before she settled for a fresh-looking apple.

The fridge was slammed shut and Marceline sulked out of her kitchen in silence. She moved into her living room and sunk a fang into the fruit. She drained the red hue out of her snack, flavor filling her mouth and for a brief moment, giving her a slight bit of joy. Not for long, however. She stared down at the monochrome apple in her palm.

"...Ugh!"

She let it roll out of her hand and didn't bother to watch as the discolored little fruit traveled away to the corner of the room.

Glob, she was a mess. Marceline knew it. She was letting her feelings bother her way too much. She was putting a damper on the dusky little room. It was dark, engulfed by the shadows of her blocked windows. Maybe all the girl really needed was something to do. Something to distract herself with. Yeah.

Marcy moved into her bedroom and opened up her closet. She looked over the clothes that filled it: reds and blues and blacks and grays, shirts and pants and skirts, but settled on a cute little green top and a pair of beat up jeans. Not to mention her sunhat, of course. She couldn't go outside without the thing. Sunlight was a burden on her sensitive gray skin. She laid the outfit down on her bed and floated into the bathroom connected to her room, humming a soft tune. She wasn't exactly sure what kind of tune it was, but it was something. Maybe she'd write a song to it later.

She shed her clothes piece by piece, slipping each off of her thin frame and leaving them for dead on her bathroom floor. She ran some hot water and slipped into the tub before it even stopped pouring. She let the water pool into her hands, closing her eyes. Relief flooded her body as water filled the tub. She hadn't relaxed in a while. Her busy mind wouldn't allow it. Well, she wouldn't be its victim anymore. Marceline could handle some silly relationship problem.

She knew she could. Right?

–

Finn giggled and rose his golden sword into the sky. Sunlight glinted off of the blade and Marcy smiled underneath her hat. She was right to go hang out with a friend. It really kept her mind off of things. She swooped down from her position above her friend and snagged the handle of the sword into her hands, but he kept a grip. She rose into the sky, laughing and spinning, threatening to knock Finn to a painful plummet to the earth.

Her actions made her friend nervous, though, as he looked down to the ground and saw just how high up he was. He started freaking out and Marcy had to lower him back down to the ground.

"Oh, don't be such a big baby," She teased, grinning and flashing sharp vampire fangs.

"I'm not a baby!" Finn sheathed his sword into his backpack. "I'm a hero!"

"Yeah? Prove it, Finn!" In all honesty, Marcy just wanted more to do. Less freaking, more action. Finn seemed happy to agree and the two raced off away from her- er, _his_ treehouse.

The two spent the day fighting bad guys and adventuring while Jake was out with Lady and his kids. Marcy may or may not have been the bad guy in maybe 3 out of 5 of those times, but hey, it was fun! She couldn't help it. She had demon blood, baby, badness was nothing to be ashamed of.

By the time they went home, it was dark out and Finn was tired. Marcy would never admit it but she was, too. Staying home sulking around all day wasn't good on her. She needed more stamina.

"Later, Finn." Marcy waved goodbye to her little kid friend and he waved back, rubbing at some scratches on his cheek. But he wore a smile so pure and innocent and happy that it made Marcy stop and think for a while and as he turned to go back inside, she could feel her mood beginning to slip again. When she smiled that day, did she look that happy, too? She certainly didn't feel it. Especially not at that moment as she turned and began her journey back home. Finn served as a good distraction, but he didn't cure her sadness. She took the sunhat off of her head, letting loose her clean hair and tucked it under her arm.

The moon shone cold, welcoming light onto her skin but it didn't soothe her like it might have that morning. She just furrowed her brows and picked up the pace back home. She just wanted to lay down and go to sleep.

Of course, sleep didn't come so easily that night. Marcy wandered over to her nightstand and set her sunhat on top of it. Beside it stood a single picture framed in a a little something red and damaged. A picture of Marcy and Bubblegum. Both smiled, PB on the verge of laughter and Marcy sticking out a snake-like forked tongue at the camera between glistening fangs that caught so much sunlight in the photo Marcy felt like she'd be burned just looking at it. Before, she'd loved that picture. It would ignite a warmth in her chest that she used to welcome. Now, she just felt empty looking at it.

She didn't like Princess Bubblegum anymore.

Marceline didn't know why. She'd liked the Princess for at least a couple years but it had begun to fade a while ago. The longer she'd waited to say something, more it disappeared until it was gone altogether. That wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that she was finding it easier and easier to notice Bubblegum's signs and subtle advances on her. It hurt just to have them pointed in her direction. She wished she'd known that Bubblegum liked her when she liked her back, but it was too late now and it was seriously donking her up! Marceline didn't want to hurt PB's feelings. She might not have had any romantic feelings left for the pink princess but she still loved her as a friend. Rejecting her would break her soft candy heart.

No, calling her soft was harsh. Bubblegum wasn't soft. She was strong and independent and she was smart. Why couldn't Marcy like her anymore? It would be so much easier for everyone if she just crushed on her again, but she knew it wasn't gonna happen. She stopped trying to find those lost affections ages ago.

Marcy picked up the frame and stared at the photo. Bubblegum's arm was slung around Marcy's shoulder, eyes shielded by some dorky safety goggles while her free hand held a Florence flask half-full of a slightly bubbling blue-green liquid. They both looked so happy...

"UGH!"

Marcy chucked it at a wall, her frustration growing to violent levels. The glass shattered and littered the floor. She huffed, breathing a little too unevenly to be comfortable and threw herself on her bed, not even bothering to clean up the mess she made. The vamp wasn't even floating over her bed like usual.

She forced her eyes shut, hands balled into tight little fists. She buried her face into her pillow, and stared into darkness until she met sleep. Sleep wasn't as happy to see her as she was to see it. Her night was plagued by nightmares. Marcy wanted to blame the fact that she didn't usually sleep at night like the way she did, but she knew that it was because of Bubblegum. It seemed that all of her problems were.


	2. You Should've Stayed Home

The sound of a frantic knocking echoing through Marcy's house was the only thing that kept her apart from her rampant nightmares. Jolting awake, she sat up so quickly she nearly gave herself whiplash and stared at her bedroom door. It was wide open, giving her a view into the hall to her living room. At first, she thought she'd imagined the noise but it resounded almost instantly after the thought crossed her mind. She rose off of her bed in a lazy float and rubbed at her sore neck. Sighing, Marcy traveled out of her room, her shadow panning over the shattered glass and broken picture frame on her floor from last night on her way out.

"Marceline? Are you hoooome? MARCY!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Marceline squinted at her front door in what could only be irritation. That voice belonged to Finn. Not that there was anything wrong with the kid; Marceline just didn't want to deal with him at the time, especially not when she was so groggy. The doorknob was cool in her hand as she turned it and opened the door to let Finn inside.

Marceline was glad that her house was located in a cave. It always kept things shaded so that the sun couldn't taint her home and blister her skin. She forgot that it wasn't nighttime until she opened her door. She was so used to sleeping during the day and being active in the night that she just assumed that it was no different this time; not to mention that the miserable vamp wasn't exactly fully awake yet and her mind wasn't running as clearly as usual.

The backpack-clad boy in front of her shone a smile in her direction that assured her that he was up to something. She raised her brows at him in a silent question and contemplated letting him in. She wasn't really all for having company over at the moment, but figured what the hell and backed up a tad so that Finn could bound inside like some overexcited puppy.

Speaking of overexcited puppies, Jake sauntered in behind him lazily, looking like he had no interest in being over at all. He waved at Marcy, though, with a friendly, "Hey, Marceline," and promptly took a seat on her couch. His human brother sat next to him. They both looked noticeably uncomfortable on Marceline's stiff couch but neither said a word of it. She didn't really care much. If it was such a problem, they could sit somewhere else.

"What did you come over for?" Marcy asked, the light in Finn's eyes catching her attention. Jeez, the kid was really excited about something.

"I wanted to invite you to an adventure!" Finn borderline launched himself off of her couch and landed nearly in front of her, arms open in glee. "Me and Jake are going to fight some monster butt while the Princess is looking for some scienc-y thing."

Marcy tried to hide her frown but failed to do it. Turning away, she wandered away from the couch a little to gather her composure. She couldn't go on that adventure with them. Maybe, if it was only Finn and Jake, maybe then she could make it. But not while Bonnie was there. Marcy didn't want to see the Princess. She almost wanted forget about the Bubblegum Princess altogether, but she couldn't do that. She didn't hate her and the last thing Marceline wanted to do to the girl was hurt her. That's why she was in this situation in the first place.

All of her thoughts raced through her head in a matter of seconds and she turned back to Finn with an indifferent expression on her face. "Nah, I'll pass. I'm way too busy to play with you everyday. Maybe I can next time."

Finn's face fell and Marcy almost felt a little bad for it. "Don't you think it would be fun? It's more fun than being locked up in your house all day."

Marcy scowled. She bit back a demand for Finn to keep his nose out of where it didn't belong, only swallowing her retort because she knew he was right. Staying cooped up in her house wasn't helping with her mood lately, but would going out really make a difference, especially if Bonnibel was going to be there? Seriously, she was the foundation of Marcy's stress in the first place. Marceline was going to reject Finn's proposal again, but she kept thinking. She couldn't stay away from Bubblegum forever- she was still Marcy's friend.

"Whatever, fine. I'll go."

Finn cheered happily, ignoring his undead friend's exaggerated sigh at his celebration. "Ready to go, then?"

What, right now? Marcy didn't know what else she was expecting out of Finn. She rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Let me go get my hat and we can leave."

–

Marceline was not about to let Princess Bubblegum ruin her time. The colorful princess greeted her happily, waving at her as she arrived with Finn and Jake to the castle. Bonnie had her hair up in a ponytail that Marcy used to find really cute. It still was cute, just not in the same way, she noted. The princess wasn't wearing her usual dress but one of the usual pink all the same. Plainer, more simplistic, accompanied by pink tights underneath that poked out as they swallowed her legs beneath the dress. Knee-high boots that were lighter than the dress but about the same color as the tiny little jacket she was wearing engulfed most of the remaining skin on her legs, save for a patch for each limb. It was odd how little care for the outfit Marcy possessed. She used to love it.

"Ready to go, guys?" Bonnie looked down at a small black velvet box in her hands. "I need a rare flower to finish my latest experiment. It's fragile and it will only stay in a stable form in velvet after we snip it free." She made a cutting scissor movement with her free hand as she looked to the trio in front of her.

"What if we don't keep it in the box?" Jake asked.

"It'll burst into flames and expel a poisonous gas."

Glob, what a mess of a flower. Marcy didn't know how PB was expecting to stuff that thing into a Florence flask but she was sure the genius princess already had it figured out. "We'll keep it in the box, then." Marcy kept it short and sweet and rose off of the ground, armed with her ax bass. "Where are we going?"

The Princess tucked the soft case under her arm and pointed into the distance in the direction of the Ice Kingdom, which was plain in sight, towering over the forest and greenery that decorated the earthy floor like a not-so-red carpet.

"The Ice Kingdom?" Finn didn't sound so pleased to learn where their treasure would be residing.

"Yes. I would have gone on my own with some banana guards if not for the flower itself." She turned her head to Finn, suddenly looking a little more serious. "It's very hostile."

"We can handle a little flower," Jake scoffed.

Bubblegum didn't look so convinced, but she didn't object.

The way to the Ice Kingdom wasn't as bad as Marceline thought it would be. It was still bad, but it wasn't _that_ bad. Bonnie wasn't the type to throw herself at Marcy or anything. She only dropped subtle hints; a glance here, a look there, a smile, an affectionate bop or something. The only reason Marceline knew that the Princess liked her was because she stopped liking her back. Bubblegum's crush became a lot more obvious to her after that. She could see the way she looked at her and the way her face brightened up whenever the vampire came around.

Marcy's heart hurt a lot for something that stopped beating a thousand years ago.

Bubblegum sat next to her as they rode on the Jake Express towards their icy destination. Once they were close, Jake lowered to the floor, shrinking, and his friends hopped off of him to meet with the floor.

Bubblegum thumbed over the nearly neon green edges of the box before tucking it back in its home under her arm. "The flower is often growing from snow, so we have a lot of ground to cover. It won't be growing on ice or anything like that. It's bright green and kinda hard to miss. It glows a little." She made a shape with her hands: only the very bottoms of her palms pressed together while her fingers stretched into the sky, making an almost V-like shape with the outlines of her pinkies(well, more like a U-V hybrid). "The flower is shaped kind of like this. Don't cut it before I get there, we need it in the box."

"Easy enough," Marcy mused. "I bet I'll find it first!"

A wide grin broke out across Finn's face. "You're on, sister!"

Marcy laughed and brandished her ax bass. Finn and Jake wore competitive smiles at her and took off of opposite directions... leaving just Bubblegum behind. Marcy looked to her and the Princess smiled back. She smiled back warmly enough to melt the entire Ice Kingdom. "I totally bet you'll win."

Why did she have to say something like that? Marcy felt a coldness sink its claws into her chest and she knew it wasn't the wind from the Ice Kingdom. That frigid feeling embedding itself in her heart was dread. She swallowed, forced herself to ignore it, and said with a smirk, "You know it."

–

Once Marcy was away from the Princess, she let herself fall to her feet in a mound of snow. Shivers snaked down her spine as snow filled her shoes and licked up to her shins, but she didn't move. The icy chill of the snow was more appealing than the pain that Bonnibel brought her. Marceline just felt so... bad about it. But why? So what if the Princess liked her? It wasn't ruining their friendship.

But it would. Marcy would have to strike her down sometime or another and it would ruin Bonnie. It would ruin _them_. She had no problem rejecting Finn when she thought he liked her, but it was different and Finn was just a kid. She was really close to Bubblegum- they'd been best friends for years. The thought of turning her down and triggering the end to their friendship made Marcy want to freak out. She couldn't just keep this up, though, she couldn't lead her on because it would only meet the same result. Heartbreak. Betrayal.

No matter what way she looked at it, Marcy knew she wouldn't be able to be friends with Bonnie anymore after this.


	3. Invitation

The longer she stood there, the more the cold got to Marceline. Being a vampire and all, it was easy for the below zero temperature to chill her body. She adjusted the red coat on her frame and rubbed an especially cold arm, feeling as if the air itself was sinking its frigid teeth into her flesh.

Bubblegum wasn't going to be easy to push out of her mind. Marcy just wanted to find that stupid flower so she could get the hell out of there and go home. She knew letting Finn drag her over on some dumb kiddy adventure was a bad idea. Rising out of the piercingly cold snow that surrounded her feet, Marcy levitated over the ground. Flecks of snow dropped from her boots and fused back with the ground, leaving the snow capped floors looking undisturbed. Hands rubbed together in an attempt to spark some warmth but the friction did little to counter the numbing of Marcy's fingers. She stayed there for a moment, trying to shrug off the heavy thoughts that draped weight over her shoulders and threatened to bury her in the snow beneath her.

Earlier, she felt that maybe she should be paying more attention to Bubblegum, but she was beginning to think that it was best if she went back to limiting her reactions with the Princess. As if she'd been transmitting her thoughts to the public, the sound of crunching snow reached her ears and Marcy turned in midair to follow it.

Of course it was Bubblegum. Who else could it be? She was trekking through the blizzard, little pink fingers frozen to that stupid black box against her chest. She was looking down, probably to keep cold wind and snow from blowing into her face. She hadn't seen Marcy yet. Good. Good. Marcy didn't want to see her. As quickly as she could, she bolted, forcing her way through a barrier of sharp breezes and sheets of blizzard. She didn't know where she was going, but anywhere was better than there.

"Marceline?"

Marcy looked up at the towering ice castle to see that the Ice King was floating up higher in front of her, eyebrows raised, a smile growing on his face and showing sharp teeth.

"What are you doin' here? Come on, come on, come inside- GUNTER! Invite our guest in, you rude little boy." The old man swept down, waving his arms at the little penguin a couple feet away from Marcy.

Marceline's heart sank. The last person she wanted to see other than Bubblegum was _him_. It hurt just to see the guy and she doubted that the pain would ever soften. Simon raised her when no one else could, and she had to watch him deteriorate into... _that_.

"No thanks. I think I'm just gonna head home." Marceline watched with a gentle frown as the Ice King landed in the snow, unfazed by its coldness.

"No, I insist. Come on. We can write a song, or hang out and watch a movie or something. I have the perfect song to show you!" His smile grew excitedly. If he wasn't a creepy old crazy version of her former father figure it might have been a little cute. "I've been working on it for a while now. At least a... couple hours... come on, let's go!"

Marceline looked over her shoulder. Was Bubblegum around? She couldn't tell with the storm this thick. And why did she have to run into Ice King? She sighed and with a crossing of her arms, she gave in. "Alright, fine."

"Yes! Come on, follow me." Ice King took off into the air again.

If Marcy said she didn't have a soft spot for that weirdo, she'd be lying.

–

The inside of Ice King's castle was a lot calmer than it was outside. Ice King ran off into some other room to grab his music stuff for Marcy. He said he was working on a song, so she was really in for something. Probably not anything good, but it was still something.

"You've gotta hear this." Ice King wandered over to an outlet and plugged his keyboard up. Grinning, he jogged back over to it. "Hold—Hold on." The keyboard came to life with the press of a button and Ice King prodded a key a couple times to make sure it was on.

And then he started playing. It seemed alright. He wasn't awful at it. Marceline floated over the couch against the wall beside his weight room(she doesn't even like sitting on her own couch, and it's not made out of _ice_) and watched him with some interest.

He bounced on his heels as he played, picking up the pace a little bit as he went. "I'm here with my best friend Marceline  
And my on and off GF just won't visit me,  
Is it because I'm ugly?"

He looked straight at Marcy with his smile fading.

"Why do you have to be so complicated?  
Why does 'us' have to be so hard?  
You're the best girl I've ever dated...  
Princess, please stop kicking me out of your house whenever I come over,  
It's starting to really hurt my feelings,  
You'll be mad when I start hanging out with Mud Princess, 'cos she's really gross!"

He paused, stopping his song abruptly with his fingers still positioned on the keys they played last. "So, what d'ya think?"

Marceline stared at him for a moment without answering his question. "...Here, let me try." She floated over to him. He backed up to give her space to play the keyboard and she placed her hands over the cold thing. She'd wanted to write a song for a while, but she could never find the inspiration. She supposed she could try something again, and began to hum the tune she had days ago when she was slipping into the tub before she decided to go out. After a moment, she began to play it.

"What can I say that won't ruin everything we've got?  
How can I fix this without leaving us to rot?  
Whoa, I don't know what to do,  
I feel wrong without you.  
Can you forgive me if I ruing everything?  
Can I forgive me if I ruin everything?  
Let me ruin us, I promise we can rebuild us-"

Marceline cut off mid-song as Finn and Jake came sprinting into the room. They paused, looking at Marcy like they'd just now realized she existed. She lifted her hands away from the keyboard like it was something she wasn't supposed to be touching. How much of that did they hear?

"Keep playing," insisted Ice King. "I'll sing with you!"

"No!" Marcy pushed away from the keyboard, nearly falling backwards out of the window cut out of the wall behind her.

Tearing his stare away from Marceline, Jake pointed to a corner of the room. "Look! There it is!"

Surely enough, in the corner sat a small mound of snow and growing out of it was a little green flower. He and Finn raced over to it, Finn drawing his sword. As soon as he came close, the flower bloomed, revealing rows of sharp menacing-looking teeth. It screeched loudly enough for Marcy to think her ears were bleeding and Ice King wailed.

"Someone shut that thing up!"

"I'll kill it! Flower, prepare to diiiieeee!" Finn charged and leaped at it, swinging his sword, but the flower bent out of the way and let Finn crash into the wall above it. It stretched, wrapping its stem around the boy's legs, and lifted him into the air.

Jake ran towards it, but it snapped at him, narrowly missing him as deadly jaws snapped over empty air. He yelped and tripped, rolling out of its way. Marcy hissed, angry, ready to attack. Just then, Princess Bubblegum entered the room. Surprise found home on her face.

"Marceline, no! Stay back! Hold on, Finn!" She reached into her coat and pulled out a strip of what Marcy assumed was velvet and walked slowly towards the hostile flower. She raised the velvet over her head, and the flower focused on it, mesmerized.

Finn, with a bit of a struggle, swung his blade awkwardly and sliced the stem of the flower, dropping him to the ground. Bubblegum rushed forward and caught the upper half of the flower in the velvet box as Finn crashed to the icy ground. "Got it!"

Marcy didn't wait for anyone to notice her by the window. She slipped out in silence, returning to the harsh blizzard outside. She could hear Bubblegum explaining that she heard the flower scream as she fled.

So much trouble for one stupid flower.


End file.
